From The Front Row: Change Rocks

Deadheads from all over reunited and traveled from far and wide to be in State College Pennsylvania (home to Penn State for those who don’t know). My hotel parking lot was filled with those familiar sights from Dead shows past; license plates from every state in the US (and even a few from Canada), colorful tie-dye flags, and even a VW bus or two. I arrived at 2pm to get my press credentials and found that most of main parking lots were full already and the show wasn’t supposed to start until 6:30pm... It was definitely starting to feel like the Dead shows of old. Around 6pm, we were shuffled into the semi-packed area to see the Allman Brothers. The Allmans were in rare form and played for two hours leading off with Revival and ending with a rousing epic rendition of Whipping Post. They even had Susan Tedeschi stop in for Don't Think Twice. They also bust out a heart-felt jam-packed version Van Morrison's And It Stoned Me. There's quite a lot of magic still left in these guys - here’s the setlist:

Revival
Statesboro
Who’s Been Talking
Midnight Rider
One Way Out
And It Stoned Me
Dreams
Don’t Think Twice (w/ Susan Tedeschi)
Anyday
Melissa
Trouble No More
Ain’t Wasting Time No More
Jessica

E: Whipping Post

Check out these clips from the Dead's soundcheck:

Click through for more from Change Rocks, including the Dead's setlist and many more photos.

After a brief break and a parade of Penn State professors, students, football coaches & players campaigning for Obama – the Dead took the stage. The set was full of goodies including the usual Help-Slip-Frank and Dark Star-St. Stephen combos, and there was also a lot of experimentation on every song, what we usually call Space. While we all hope that this is just a practice gig for a full tour, no announcements have been made as of yet. I got to spend some time with both Mickey Hart & Warren Haynes recently and they both have said “anything is possible as long as we’re all above ground and healthy”. You know I’ll let you know if I hear anything. We’ve got Phil Lesh coming up to our studios here in early November and we’re going to be giving away tickets to his 2nd annual Philathon shows at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square and some other goodies from him & the Dead very soon, so stay tuned for that. Here’s the setlist from the Dead’s set:

Truckin'>
U.S. Blues
Help On The Way>
Slipknot!>
Franklin's Tower
Playing In The Band>
Dark Star
St. Stephen>
Unbroken Chain>
The Other One>
Throwin' Stones>
Playing In The Band Reprise

E: Touch of Grey>Not Fade Away

The show ended a little after midnight, and before the encore Phil did his usual "Donor Rap” expressing gratitude to organ donors and then Bob said something that really grabbed me, he said (and this is not an exact quote, but this is basically what he said) “The late Hunter Thompson once told me that if the all the Deadheads voted for one candidate, they could change the course of an election”. Now we know why there is the “Deadheads for Obama” initiative. I do believe he’s right, but getting every single deadhead to vote for the same candidate is another story. Here’s some killer photos I got from the pit. Enjoy!

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Evan Rocks